Son of president enters the election picture
SOLO, Indonesia — Not long ago, the eldest son of President Joko Widodo of Indonesia was running a catering business and a chain of dessert shops. Now he is the symbol of a budding political dynasty and the beneficiary of family maneuvering.
With the help of a high court ruling led by his uncle, the president’s son, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, has emerged as the leading candidate for vice president in next month’s national elections. If his ticket wins, he would become Indonesia’s youngest vice president ever.
The machinations have rattled critics, who warn Joko is moving to undermine democratic overhauls that were adopted after decades of dictatorship and that helped Joko himself win the presidency in 2014.
Three candidates are running to succeed Joko in Indonesia’s Feb. 14 election, including a former general who is now defense minister, Prabowo Subianto. Prabowo, who has long been accused of human rights abuses, has lost the last two elections to Joko.
But this time, the president, widely known as “Jokowi,” is lending his brand to the former general — in the form of his son as running mate. The merger of the two political families appears to give their ticket the edge, polls indicate.
“It is clear that Jokowi is building a political dynasty,” said Yoes C. Kenawas, a research fellow at Atma Jaya University in Jakarta. Joko’s goal, he said, is to prepare his son to run for president in 2029. Serving under Prabowo would be a “period of apprenticeship.”
“Because in the end, the aim is president,” he said, “not vice president.”
A former furniture manufacturer, Joko rose from city mayor to governor and eventually to president of the world’s third-largest democracy without having family connections. After winning his first term, he said that becoming president “does not mean channeling power to my children.”
But after Joko won his second, and final, five-year term in 2019, members of his family embarked on their own political careers. In 2020, Gibran was elected mayor of Solo, and Joko’s son-in-law, Muhammad Bobby Afif Nasution, was elected mayor of Medan.
In September, the president’s younger son, Kaesang Pangarep, 28, joined the Indonesian Solidarity Party. Two days later, he was named its chair. The party is widely seen as a post-presidential vehicle for Joko that he can use to help cement his legacy as a leader who sought to modernize the country with new toll roads, ports and airports.
As party chief, Kaesang has drawn attention by carrying a teddy bear to official meetings. He told reporters the bear was a gift from his wife.
For his part, Gibran was able to run for vice president only because his uncle and the Constitutional Court intervened in October, allowing candidates younger than 40 to run for president or vice president if they have previously been elected to office. Casting the deciding vote in the 5-4 ruling was the chief justice, Anwar Usman, who had been appointed to the court by Joko and later married the president’s sister.
An ethics panel quickly removed Anwar as chief justice for his “serious violation” of the court’s ethics code, but the decision still stands. Anwar denies any wrongdoing.
Days later, Prabowo — who was the son-inlaw of the ousted dictator, Suharto — picked Gibran as his running mate in the apparent hope the president’s popularity would rub off on his campaign. Polls suggest that the ticket has the edge over the other two candidates running to succeed Joko in the election next month but that a runoff, in June, is likely.